Let's give them someone to talk to

August 26, 2008 10:40 AM

I'm looking for suggestions for video guest speakers for a class I'm teaching this fall.

I'm teaching a class this semester called Media 2.0: Production & Distribution in the Internet Age. It's based on the ideas of the long tail and convergence culture and how new technologies are changing the relationships between producers and consumers of media content. (There's a syllabus posted on my website, which is liked in my profile, if you're interested).

One of my ideas for the class was to have people who are actually doing this kind of work to talk directly to my class, to help make these concepts more real to them. But, because I am at a state university, in a poor state that just had a budget shortfall, I have zero dollars for this, literally (we don't even have student fees for our courses). So my idea was to have guest speakers via video chat, through Skype or ooVoo or something similar, because we do at least have internet and a video projector in our classrooms.

So far I have two AWESOME speakers lined up: Apelad (Adam Koford) of Laugh-out-Loud Cats fame, and Metafilter's Own Jesse Thorn. I'm looking for suggestions for 1 or maybe 2 more people to round out the semester. Based on my students' interests, a writer, filmmaker, or musician would be really good. (I did try to get Jonathan Coulton, but my first email received no response, and my second got swiftly turned down by his publicity person).

So any suggestions you have for good possible speakers, as well as maybe any hints as to how to best approach these people, would be very welcomed.

posted by DiscourseMarker to education (10 comments total)

I'd suggest another Mefite: frenetic who (I now know) just happens to be the awesome open source musician Brad Sucks. Probably a good guy to talk to about how technology has allowed for a new kind of relationship with media consumers.
posted by eralclare at 10:52 AM on August 26, 2008

Ze Frank seems like a natural choice, as do the folks at Improv Everywhere.
posted by griseus at 10:58 AM on August 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

What about Derek Sivers, the founder of CDBaby? He's a super-nice guy, a wonderful speaker, and single-handedly created the biggest online distribution source for independent musicians in the world. His contact info is on his blog, try dropping him an email!
posted by platinum at 11:36 AM on August 26, 2008

Some people from the music side of things:

Derek Sivers of CDBaby
Lucas Gonze of Yahoo Music
Samantha Murphy is on the cutting edge of your topics
Maybe the genius Serguei Osokine if you ask nicely

All of these peoples' personal websites are the top results if you google their names.
posted by rhizome at 11:41 AM on August 26, 2008

How about Rex from Fimoculous?
posted by nitsuj at 11:42 AM on August 26, 2008

You might try Jay Rosen of PressThink. His specialty is citizen journalism.
posted by kimdog at 11:48 AM on August 26, 2008

John Buckman at Magnatune would have lots of useful things to contribute. He and magnatune are great.
posted by GPF at 11:51 AM on August 26, 2008

Not music, but Merlin Mann pops to mind as someone who might do it.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:01 PM on August 26, 2008

These are all great suggestions, thanks! I'm also having my students do a profile of a Media 2.0 artists/project/organization, so these are also great suggestions to pass along to my students for their research. Keep 'em coming!
posted by DiscourseMarker at 12:24 PM on August 26, 2008

What about Brian Dunning of Skeptoid? This seems like something he'd probably be happy to do.
posted by slumberfiend at 2:43 PM on August 26, 2008